An Albatross Return to Their Roots With a House Show

An Albatross are about to bring their hyperspace experience on tour again, but this time the home-grown Wilkes-Barre, Pa. outfit is doing something they haven't done since the early years of the band. They're going to give a house show a shot again while on tour. "It's gonna be kind of interesting," singer Eddie Gieda told Noisecreep, anticipating the upcoming show. "We sort of warded off playing house shows a few years ago, because I got electrocuted to the point where we were debating on whether to get me to the hospital or not."

With that moment in clarity, Gieda looks back on the dark side -- the possible dangers that comes with house shows. "A lot of time you play these house shows, and they're great and what not. But they're a lot of elements that are dangerous that goes into these shows when you're packing 100 to 200 kids into a small basement with one exit, and you've got a lot of vintage equipment that is known to catch on fire," Gieda says. "If it's an old punk house, the electricity might not be properly grounded as it is throughout the house. You run the risk of zapping and electrocuting a few hundred people, yourself included."

Since that near-death moment for the self-described "psychedelic evangelist," playing a show outside the secured realm of a club hasn't been an option for the band. But there is certainly an excitement over this upcoming Baton Rouge, La. show. "It should be massively interesting," Gieda gleamed. "Because we've done one gig like that before, but in someone's back yard at like two or three in the morning. It was absolutely freaking insane."

Gieda hopes that this show, accompanied by tourmates Dark Meat, is a success, because there is a part for him that misses playing these types of shows. "It bums me out," he confesses. "Because the scene we emerged from and were incubated in was the DIY scene. The very first few years of our existence, we did all of our own booking and playing shows in basements. There wasn't anything like managers, record labels, publicists or booking agents involved."

Gieda recalls that whole time of being packed in the small rooms and sub-floors with a fondness; it is what help designed the aesthetic for the band -- even to this day. "In the mid to late '90s and the early millennia, that was something that was a very real time that was very special. I think it served to inspire me and the guys who started this band, and those who keep doing it. We come from that scene and understand what it is. Our idea of bring people together and breaking down the idea of what is audience and band to make a show a real happening comes from where we come from."